Offence-Related Cognition
Description
Evidence-based approaches to understanding and treating offence-related cognition across populations
Offence-Related Cognition: Theory, Assessment and Intervention delivers a comprehensive examination of criminal cognition. Experts Theresa A. Gannon and Tony Ward integrate perspectives from cognitive science, clinical psychology, and forensic psychology to address how offence-related thinking develops and can be effectively treated across populations including individuals who sexually offend, violently offend, or start deliberate fires.
The book covers contemporary assessment methods from traditional questionnaires to innovative indirect measures like the Implicit Association Test. Readers gain practical guidance on clinical formulation and evidence-based treatments spanning behavioural, cognitive-behavioural, and third-wave therapies. Unique chapters examine cognition in special populations including individuals with intellectual disabilities while exploring how cognitive biases systematically affect criminal justice from investigations to jury decisions.
Readers will also find:
- Comprehensive theoretical frameworks including enactivist perspectives, emotion-cognition integration, and moral reasoning development applied to criminal behaviour
- Evidence-based assessment techniques covering questionnaires, interviews, indirect measures, and best-practice clinical formulation approaches for diverse offending populations
- Detailed examination of offence-specific cognition in sexual offending, intimate partner violence, firesetting, and general violence with established theoretical models
- Treatment approaches from behavioural and cognitive-behavioural to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
- Specialized coverage of intellectual disability populations, forensic mental health settings, criminal justice system biases, and witness memory factors
Essential for forensic psychologists, criminologists, psychiatrists, and students pursuing advanced degrees, this text provides the evidence-based resource needed to effectively assess and treat offence-related cognition. With contributions from international experts, it delivers practical tools to advance both research and clinical practice.
More details
Persons
Theresa A. Gannon, DPhil, is a Professor of Forensic Psychology and Director of the Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychology at the University of Kent, UK. She is a Practitioner Consultant Forensic Psychologist specialising in deliberate firesetting and sexual offending.
Tony Ward, PhD, DipClinPsyc, is currently Professor of Clinical Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and a Fellow of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. He has published extensively in these areas with over 490 academic publications. His work has been recognised with the 2021 Mason Durie Medal for Social Science research, awarded by the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Content
About the Editors ix
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xvii
1 A Brief Primer of Social Cognition for Forensic Psychology 1
2 Enactivism, Cognition, and Forensic Explanation 21
3 Shaping Professional Conceptualization of Offending Behavior and Criminal Justice Research 37
4 Emotion and Cognition: Current Approaches and Future Directions 55
5 Desistance and Cognition: Agency and Identity Shifts 73
6 Moral Cognition and Offending 89
7 Expertise and Offending 105
8 Questionnaire and Qualitative Approaches to Assessing Cognition in Forensic Populations 125
9 Indirect Methods of Assessing Cognition in Forensic Populations 143
10 Distinctions Between Violent Attitudes and Other Violent Cognitions 163
11 Evidence-Based Assessment of Offense-Related Cognitions in Clinical Practice 179
12 Cognition in Sexual Offending 197
13 Cognition in Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration 215
14 Firesetting Cognition 233
15 General Violence Cognition 251
16 Intellectual Disability and Offense-Related Cognition 267
17 Cognition and the Criminal Justice System 285
18 Cognition and Witness Memory 303
19 First- and Second-Wave Approaches to Problematic Cognitions in Forensic Practice 319
20 Third-Wave Therapeutic Approaches to Problematic Cognitions in Forensic Settings 337
21 Working with Offense-Supportive Psychosis and Delusions in Forensic Practice 355
22 Future Research and Practice Challenges for Forensic Cognition 371
Index 000